I just finished my first Python programme, which basically archives user-specified files. There is a GUI made with tkinter and sqlite3. Finally I got it to work fine in Python. Then I made it into an .exe file using pyinstaller, and the key component (the archiving) is just not happening.
Within the Archive() function, I created pop up windows to show me the paths and they all seem fine, so the thread is working, but the actual archiving is not happening. Here is a small part of the code, which I think is where the error lies.
def Archiver(input_file, output_dir, archive_int):
while True:
global sched_var
time.sleep(archive_int*60)
input_name = os.path.basename(input_file)
main_dir = os.path.dirname(input_file)
if not os.path.exists(main_dir + '/temp'):
os.mkdir(main_dir + '/temp')
## copy file to temporary directory
shutil.copy(input_file, os.path.join(main_dir, 'temp'))
## hold all the paths in variables to check they are okay
tempfiledir = os.path.join(main_dir + '/temp/' + input_name)
archfile = input_file + "_" + time.strftime("%H%M_%d%m%Y")+'.rar'
outputarch = output_dir + '/' + input_name + "_" + time.strftime("%H%M_%d%m%Y")+'.rar'
messagebox.showinfo(title = 'tempfiledir', message = tempfiledir) ## all these seem okay
messagebox.showinfo(title = 'archfile', message = archfile)
messagebox.showinfo(title = 'outputarch', message = outputarch)
patoolib.create_archive(archfile,(tempfiledir,),) ## from here - nothing executed
messagebox.showinfo(title = 'Archive', message = 'Archive created')
shutil.move(archfile, outputarch)
messagebox.showinfo(title = 'Moved', message = 'Archive moved')
if sched_var == False:
break
As I said, it works perfect when run in Python, is there something with os.path that is different once the file is an .exe file?
Yes, basically the executable gets extracted to a temporary directory and then runs there. The path to that directory is saved in a system variable called _MEIPASS. You can look here for how to retrieve that path and create an absolute path with the temp folder location.